The unceremonious exit of a political juggernaut

Close to two months after the presidential election in which President Goodluck Jonathan, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, woefully lost to the opposition, Anthony Akhakon Anenih decided to resign his position as chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT).

Anenih was prevailed upon to throw in the towel by a deluge of criticisms from various quarters over his roles in the shameful history made by PDP’s Presidential candidate as the first to lose an election at that level to the opposition. It is believed that the politician would have continued to carry on were it not for calls for his resignation from stakeholders and aggrieved members.

Those who felt insulted by his adamant posturing pointed to the prompt response to election loss by Ed Miliband, United Kingdom’s Labour Party leader. Miliband resigned on Friday, May 8, 2015 afternoon after a humiliating defeat which saw the Conservatives win a majority.

It would be recalled that Miliband had, in an emotion-laden announcement of his prompt exit, said: “This is not the speech I wanted to give today because I believe that Britain needed a Labour government. I still do, but the public voted otherwise last night. I am tendering my resignation taking effect after this afternoon’s commemoration of VE-Day. I want to do so straight away because the party needs an open debate about the right way forward without constraint.”

Critics believe that Anenih, on whose incessant prodding Jonathan went into the ill-fated race, should have been man enough to respectfully resign immediately it was clear that PDP has lost.

The Uromi, Edo State-born politician, who has for many years relished the “Mr. Fix It” appellation given to him as a result of his political dexterity, sagacity and unrivalled ability and influence to swing victory in favour of the PDP, even in unlikely situations, may have never known his exit would be ignominious.

Since the return of Nigeria to civil rule in 1999, Anenih has been many things to the PDP.

Long before the general election was announced, the politician had urged Jonathan to make public his re-election ambition, threatening that the Niger Delta people, and indeed the South-South zone would disown him if he refused to do so.

At various fora, Anenih had repeated the call on Jonathan to run. Today, he has gone down in history as one of those who misled Jonathan through wrong counsels. Anenih also saw the Jonathan administration as the South-South moment of “enjoyment” and a time of settling families and friends.

Anenih’s claim that he vacated his office to allow President Jonathan step in as chairman of BoT is not only infantile, but also self-consolatory.

The now demystified politician said he had written to alert Jonathan some weeks ago that he was going to resign for him.

“Your Excellency will recall that in a conversation I had with you a few weeks ago, I had offered to step down from the office of the Chairman of our party’s Board of Trustees and proposed to hand over to you as its new chairman in a ceremony that would have taken place on May 23, 2015. I had also repeated this position in our subsequent meetings,” he said.

According to him, “as a follow-up to the above proposal and in view of the current state of affairs in our party, I have decided to formally put my offer in writing to enable you effectively assume the Chairmanship of Board of Trustees or approve a process that will enable any other member of the BoT who is considered competent, to assume the position.”

“Kindly accept, therefore, this letter as notice of my decision to step down from the position of chairman of the BoT of our party with effect from today, the 20th of May, 2015.”

Some analysts say the excuse given by Anenih was a face-saving tactic. They also advise President Jonathan to go home and have a deserved rest rather than carrying another burden on his shoulders so soon.

“I think that dragging President Jonathan into BoT position this time around is not wise enough. Having lost a major election, Jonathan should allow PDP to manage itself for now; he should simply go home and rest. He remains a member of the party, but should not allow himself to be messed up again. There is a likelihood of some of the members covertly or overtly reminding him of his election loss, particularly anytime he may try to show his power as BoT chairman. He should not allow Anenih to deceive him again. It was the likes of Anenih that gave him false hope that he was going to win the election,” said a critic who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In the days when rigging was the order of the day, and the PDP basking in the euphoria of its victory in the 1999 general election, Anenih had also bragged that victory for the party in 2003 was sacrosanct; he had at that time declared that come rain, come shine, President Olusegun Obasanjo must win a re-election. It was a period when his “Mr. Fix It” nickname was being popularised.

It would be recalled that in December 2010, Anenih had also told Nigerians that there was no vacancy in the Aso Rock Villa, saying that Jonathan was Nigeria’s “consensus candidate.” Anenih, who spoke at the inauguration of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation headquarters in Benin, said: “Our presence here today has sent a signal and I know that the people outside are more than the people inside. We know that there is the Adamu Ciroma-led consensus candidate; we also know there is the Nigerian consensus candidate. For the Nigerian consensus candidate, there is no vacancy in Aso Rock.”

Before the 2015 elections, some analysts said President Jonathan would only return to power if Anenih, “Mr. Fix-It”, could wield his rigging strategy because according to them,  Jonathan cannot win a free and fair presidential election, on account of his dismal record.

Anenih was born in Uzenema-Arue in Uromi on 4 August 1933. In 1951, he joined the Nigeria police force in Benin City. Working at home, he obtained secondary school qualifications. He attended the police college in Ikeja, and was selected for further training in the Bramshill Police College, Basingstoke, England in 1966 and the International Police Academy, Washington, DC in 1970. He served as a police orderly to the first Governor General of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe. He worked as an instructor in various police colleges and in 1975 was assigned to the Administrative Staff College (ASCON), Lagos. He retired from the police as a Commissioner of police.

Anenih was state chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) between 1981 and 1983, helping Samuel Ogbemudia become elected as civilian Governor of Bendel State. However, the governorship was cut short by the military takeover of December 1983. He was National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party from 1992 and 1993, when he assisted in the election MKO Abiola as president. He was a member of the Constitutional Conference in 1994.

He was a member of the PDM until early April 2002, when he transferred to the PDP. Anenih was said to have masterminded the 26 April 2002 declaration of President Obasanjo at the International Conference center Abuja. He was deputy national coordinator of Olusegun Obasanjo’s campaign Organisation in the 1999 and 2003 elections.

In October 2009, a senate committee issued a report on their investigation into the use of more than N300 billion in the transport sector during the Obasanjo administration. The committee recommended prosecution of thirteen former Ministers, including Anenih, saying he had awarded contracts without budgetary provision. In November 2009, the Senate indefinitely shelved consideration of the report.

In October 2009, the CBN released a list of customers with major debt to five recently audited banks. It reported that, through Mettle Energy and Gas limited, Anenih and Osahon Asemota owed N2, 065 million. Tony Anenih said he had nothing to do with Mettle Energy and Gas Limited, and said he had written to Farida Waziri, the then Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, urging the commission to investigate the matter.

He is married to Josephine Anenih, a lawyer, who was the chairperson of the Federation of Women Lawyers from 1994 to 2000, and was the first National Woman Leader of the (PDP) from 1999-2005. She was appointed minister of Women Affairs on 6 April 2010, when the then acting President Jonathan announced his new cabinet.